Monday, July 29, 2013

I heard today from Dr. Christopher Pierson, neuropathologist and vice-chair of Children's Oncology Group Young Investigators. He asked me to share the following announcement about a fantastic program:

The
Children’s Oncology Group Young Investigator (COG YI) mentor/mentee program is
currently soliciting applications for potential mentees. The purpose of this
program is to provide an opportunity for a junior pathologist to work with a senior
pathologist and possibly advance toward serving as part of central pathology
review for COG protocols and/or serving on COG committees. The program
pairs a young investigator with a senior member of the COG pathology discipline
who provides mentorship to the young investigator while executing a research
project based on a tumor type or topic of mutual interest. YI mentees are
expected to present their progress at the yearly fall COG meeting. The program
does not fund specific research projects, but can help direct individuals to
other funding sources if needed. Limited funds may or may not be available from
COG to defray the cost of travel for mentees to attend yearly COG meetings.

Requirements
for potential mentee:

1.Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Member

2.
Less than 5 years from completion
of fellowship/residency

3.Precise area of interest within a
specific pediatric tumor

4.Completed application (see below)

An
optimal mentee is an individual with a defined focus in a specific pediatric
tumor. Mentees should submit a project proposal related to this area of
interest that utilizes resources unique to the COG, such as H+E slides,
paraffin sections, tissue microarrays, and in some cases frozen samples.

This
three-year program is aimed to provide guidance to COG young investigators who
have matured in their career to a level of interest in one particular pediatric
tumor.Those who are still exploring or
examining various subjects within pediatric tumors should not apply.
Interested applicants must apply by September 30, 2013.

To
apply for the COG YI pathology mentorship program, please prepare the
following:

Thursday, July 25, 2013

I'm working on a high-grade glioma and am coming across scattered presumably neoplastic cells that have course red granular cytoplasm. How does one interpret such cells? Does it raise the possibility of a granular cell astrocytoma? Or are these often present and I've just ignored them until now? Thanks for any help you might be able to provide in the comments section!

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

I had reported in May of this year on the tragic death of Dr Roger Brumback. Here is a follow-up on the case from CNN:updated 8:34 PM EDT, Mon July 15, 2013

(CNN) -- Police arrested a former Creighton University lab worker Monday for two double homicides over five years, both sets of victims were connected to the pathology department at the Nebraska school.

Anthony Joseph Garcia, 40, was arrested during a traffic stop in Illinois, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said. Officers were making preparations to arrest him Tuesday, but the Indiana resident "became mobile" and police felt they needed to arrest him right away, he said.

Garcia was arrested on four counts of first-degree murder in the May deaths of Roger and Mary Brumback, both 65, and the March 2008 deaths of 11-year-old Thomas Hunter and his family's housekeeper, Shirlee Sherman.

All lived in Omaha.

Roger Brumback was a professor in the pathology and neurology departments at Creighton and announced his retirement shortly before he was killed.

Thomas Hunter's father, Dr. William Hunter, is a faculty member in Creighton's 12-person pathology department. The boy's mother, Dr. Claire Hunter, is an associate professor in Creighton's cardiology division.

Garcia worked in the pathology lab from July 2000 until June 2001, when the Brumbacks and William Hunter fired him, said Omaha Police Officer Michael Pecha. CNN affiliate KETV said Garcia was fired for "erratic behavior."

An Omaha task force had been monitoring Garcia "for some time," Schmaderer said. He was pulled over for suspected alcohol impairment and was found with a .45 handgun.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

The second edition of Muscle Disease: Pathology and Genetics will be released in August 2013. The publisher states that the book "clarifies the pathology and genetics of muscle disease for
pathologists, clinicians, geneticists and researchers to aid in the
diagnosis and management of patients. Organized around the 'motor unit'
concept, this book presents the latest understanding of muscle disease,
and how this can help identify new treatments."

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Perhaps the biggest discovery in the Alzheimer research world last year
was the identification of a mutation in APP that significantly decreases
its cleavage by β-secretase, leading to 40% less production of amyloidogenic peptides in vitro. The researchers found the mutation (A673T) in the APP gene protects against Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline in the elderly without Alzheimer’s disease.

Future drugs that can
recreate this Aβ-reducing effect “should perhaps be given not only to
people at risk of Alzheimer’s but to all elderly people,” says Kári Stefánsson, senior investigator of the study, which came out of Iceland and appears online in Nature.

Friday, July 5, 2013

The XVIIIth International Congress of Neuropathology will be held in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil, the first time ever in Latin America, on 14-18
September 2014. It will be organized by Brazilian and Argentinian
neuropathologists and an international scientific committee will be
established to plan the Congress programme. Organizers say the emphasis will be on promoting the
exchange of expertise between the different branches of neuropathology
and allied fields of neuroscience.